CALL FOR TEN (10) PARTICIPATION GRANTS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE CONFERENCE THE LAST TO DIE
Are you a PhD candidate or a PhD holder working in religious studies, semiotics, communication sciences, or related disciplines?
Are you interested in exploring hope as a semiotic, ethical, and religious device within contemporary transformations marked by global crises, symbolic shifts, and new forms of individual and collective fragility?
If so, we invite you to apply for a unique opportunity to participate in an international one-day event that begins from a shared diagnosis: the widespread perception of living in a time permeated by somber atmospheres, marked by a progressive dimming of the world’s symbolic luminosity and an increasing sense of fragility in individual and collective conditions of life.
Conference abstract
The international workshop starts from a shared diagnosis: the widespread perception of a time marked by dark atmospheres, a progressive reduction in the symbolic luminosity of the world, and a growing sense of fragility in individual and collective living conditions.
Wars re-emerging within the horizon of European experience, environmental crises testifying to an exhausted planet, and a general shift from the force of language to the logic of force contribute to generating a form of anticipatory anguish, oriented toward threats still distant yet perceived as approaching. In such a context, the question is not only what may still be hoped for, but above all what it means to hope: what semiotic, ethical, and religious function hope can assume when the future appears opaque and uncertain.
The event proposes an interdisciplinary reflection weaving together semiotics, philosophy, theology, and cultural studies in order to interrogate hope as both an interpretative practice and a symbolic form. Modern and contemporary literature offers paradigmatic figures of this tension: from the inner and social transformations narrated in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, where hope confronts disillusionment and maturation, to the political and collective horizon evoked by André Malraux in L’Espoir, where hope emerges as a shared construction of meaning under extreme historical conditions. At the same time, philosophical and religious traditions reveal the complexity of the concept: Seneca, in the Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, invites recognition of the intertwining of fear and hope as a fundamental dynamic of the human soul; Augustine conceives spes as a dynamic tension orienting the community toward eschatological fulfillment; Leopardi, in the Zibaldone, identifies hope as a force inherent and inseparable from life itself, capable of persisting even within a radically disenchanted horizon.
Alongside these classical genealogies, the workshop opens to contemporary reflections redefining the role of hope in contexts of global crisis. Ernst Bloch, in Das Prinzip Hoffnung, interprets hope as a utopian anticipation embedded in cultural practices and collective desires; Charles Péguy, through the figure of the petite fille espérance, highlights its apparent fragility and generative strength; Rebecca Solnit, in Hope in the Dark, proposes hope not as optimistic prediction but as radical openness to the unforeseeable. In dialogue with these perspectives, Primo Levi’s testimony in If This Is a Man reminds us that hope may survive even in extreme conditions, not as abstract consolation but as a minimal practice of dignity and resistance.
Deliberately international and interdisciplinary, the workshop takes place in Trento as a symbolic space of dialogue among diverse religious and ethical traditions, refusing an exclusively European perspective and opening itself to voices from other continents. If “hope is the last to die,” the central question becomes how it might guide the interpretation of the present without collapsing into rhetoric or illusion. The day thus seeks to explore hope as a semiotic device capable of articulating new languages for the future, transforming contemporary anguish into a field of critical elaboration and shared responsibility.
Conference overview
Theme: THE LAST TO DIE: Semiotics of Hope between Religion and Ethics
Duration: One day
Location: Trento, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Via S. Croce 77, Aula Grande
Date: April 27, 2026
Official language: English. Contributions in other languages are allowed with English translation.
Main Organizer and Host
Centro per le Scienze Religiose
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK-ISR), Trento
Scientific Conveners
Juan ALONSO ALDAMA (Università Paris Cité), Massimo LEONE (ISR/FBK – Università di Torino), Federico MONTANARI (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
Keynote Speakers
Cristina DEMARIA (Università di Bologna), Michael FACIUS (Tokyo Institute of Advanced Studies, Giappone), Seema KHANWALKAR (Ahmedabad University, India), Yunhee LEE (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Repubblica di Corea), Clotilde PEREZ (Università di São Paulo, Brasile), Frédéric VANDENBERGHE (Università Statale di Rio de Janeiro, Brasile)
The organizers offer a participation grant (Conference Grant) of up to 300 EUR for each selected participant, covering travel and accommodation expenses through reimbursement.
Ten (10) participation grants are available. Applicants will be selected based on the quality and relevance of their research and contributions. Applications will be evaluated by an internal committee of the FBK-ISR Center.
Eligibility criteria
PhD candidates or PhD holders in religious studies, semiotics, communication sciences, or related disciplines may apply.
How to apply
Interested applicants are invited to submit their application by March 20, 2026. The application dossier must include:
- A curriculum vitae (CV) in European format highlighting academic and professional background;
- A brief statement of intent (maximum 2000 characters) outlining research interests and motivation for participation;
- UAn abstract (maximum 300 words) of a contribution to be presented at the symposium in poster form. Please indicate clearly how the proposal relates to hope in its semiotic, ethical, religious, or cultural dimensions;
Names and contact details of at least two academic or professional referees.
Applications must be submitted as a single PDF file via email to [email protected] with the subject: “Conference Grant Application – [Surname]”.
Important dates
Application deadline: March 20, 2026, 11:59 PM
Notification of acceptance: April 2, 2026, 12:00 AM
PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING
Pursuant to Art. 13 of EU Regulation No. 2016/679 (GDPR), personal data provided will be processed by the Foundation, as Data Controller, using manual, electronic, and telematic tools suitable to ensure data security and confidentiality, exclusively within the scope of this Call for Conference Grants and related administrative procedures.
Providing data is mandatory to submit an application. Each applicant has the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing, object to processing for legitimate reasons, data portability, and to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority pursuant to Chapter III of the GDPR.
The full privacy notice is available at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WIR8e6D739fnvlDB3Q_X7vRt1ygy37Ct/view
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